The start of a new week means it's time for a new roundup of crime drama news:
AWARDS
The Oscars were handed out last night in Los Angeles, and although this was a light year for crime dramas, Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman won for Best Adapted Screenplay. Congrats also go to Green Book for Best Picture; Best Director, Alfonso Cuarón for Roma; Best Actress, Olivia Coleman for The Favorite; and Best Actor, Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody.
Last week, the Writers Guild handed out their annual awards for excellence in television and film. On the film side, the crime dramedy Can You Ever Forgive Me won Best Adapted Screenplay (screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, based on the book by Lee Israel). On the TV side, The Americans won for Best Drama Series Writing (Peter Ackerman, Hilary Bettis, Joshua Brand, Joel Fields, Sarah Nolen, Stephen Schiff, Justin Weinberger, Joe Weisberg, Tracey Scott Wilson); and Long-Form Adapted Writing went to The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (writers: Maggie Cohn, Tom Rob Smith, based on the book Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth).
THE BIG SCREEN
A remake of the 1965 crime thriller, Bunny Lake is Missing, is in early development stages via Sony’s Screen Gem label. The original, based on the novel of the same name by Merriam Modell, was directed and produced by Otto Preminger and starred Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, and Keir Dullea. The story follows a mother who comes to pick up her daughter Bunny from school only to find her missing. When the police start investigating, they can’t find any evidence of a child ever living at the home and learn that Bunny was the name of the mother’s imaginary childhood friend. It’s not clear whether the mother is crazy or she is being set up.
Gunpowder & Sky is working with screenwriters Nora Kletter and Grainne Belluomo to adapt Cristin Terrill’s suspense novel Here Lies Daniel Tate, although they’re adding a gender twist, making the film’s protagonist a teen girl rather than a boy. The film’s plot will kick off when 10-year-old Danielle Tate goes missing from an elite California community, only to resurface six years later in Vancouver before being reunited with her family as she tries to recover lost memories.
Gerard McMurray (The First Purge, Burning Sands) has been tapped to write and direct the Michael B. Jordan action thriller, The Silver Bear. The feature adaptation of Derek Haas’s best-selling book series centers on Columbus (Jordan), the most feared and respected hit man in the criminal underworld, who takes on everyone from drug dealers to Czech crime lords.
Two-time Oscar winner, Kevin Costner, and Diane Lane are set to star in Let Him Go, a suspense thriller written and directed by Thomas Bezucha and based on the novel by Larry Watson. Costner and Lane star as retired sheriff George Blackledge and his wife Margaret who leave their Montana ranch after the death of their son to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas, headed by matriarch Blanche Weboy. When they discover the Weboys have no intention of letting the child go, George and Margaret are left with no choice but to fight for their family.
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie (Leave No Trace) and Matt Smith (The Crown, Dr. Who) have joined the cast of the psychological thriller, Last Night in Soho. The duo joins Anya Taylor-Joy in the project which Edgar Wright co-wrote with Penny Dreadful scribe Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Details about the plot of the film are currently being kept under wraps.
After nearly a decade in development, Todd Field’s adaptation of Boston Teran’s novel, The Creed of Violence, is on the fast track, with Daniel Craig tapped to star in the indie film. Set in 1910 during the Mexican Revolution, The Creed of Violence follows an assassin named Rawbone (Craig) and a young government agent named John Lourdes as they travel from Texas to Mexico to stop a smuggling ring.
The first trailer dropped for Dragged Across Concrete, starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn as two police detectives suspended after a video of their strong arm tactics is leaked to the media. With little money and no options, the embittered cops descend into the criminal underworld and find more than they wanted waiting in the shadows. The cast also includes Tory Kittles, Michael Jai White, Jennifer Carpenter, Laurie Holden, Fred Melamed, Thomas Kretschmann and Don Johnson.
TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES
UK production company Ugly Duckling Films is developing the crime series We Are Your Children based on the 1970s San Francisco “Doodler” serial killer. The murderer, who targeted San Fran’s gay community, became known as the “Doodler” from the elaborate drawings of his victims that he’d leave behind at the scenes of his crimes. Two of his victims survived and identified a man but refused to testify in court, and the man was never charged.
Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer, co-creators of hit podcast Criminal, are turning the true crime audio program into a scripted series for AMC. Criminal tells stories of people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.
Colin Farrell is to star in the BBC’s adaptation of The North Water, written and directed by Andrew Haigh. Farrell plays Henry Drax in the drama, a harpooner and brutish killer who will set sail on a whaling expedition to the Arctic with Patrick Sumner, a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as the ship’s doctor. Hoping to escape the horrors of his past, Sumner finds himself on an ill-fated journey with a murderous psychopath.
Malik Yoba, star of Dick Wolf’s 1990s series New York Undercover, has been tapped to star in the contemporary reboot of the cop drama for ABC. Yoba will reprise his role as J.C. Williams from the original series, who is now overseeing the unit and the next generation of detectives.
Filming has begun on the new Australian contemporary mystery series, My Life Is Murder, starring iconic actress Lucy Lawless. Lawless stars as Alexa Crowe, a charismatic and complex homicide detective whose unique skills and insights into the darker quirks of human nature allow her to provoke, comfort, and push the right buttons as she unravels the truth behind the most baffling of crimes.
Nathaniel Arcand (Cold Pursuit) has been cast opposite Julian McMahon, Alana de la Garza, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Roxy Sternberg and Kellan Lutz in FBI: Most Wanted, the spinoff of Dick Wolf’s freshman CBS drama series, FBI. The spinoff has a series commitment, making an episodic pickup for next season likely. Arcand will play Agent Clinton Skye, a marksman with a law degree.
Ramon Rodriguez (Iron Fist) is set as a lead opposite Malin Akerman in NBC’s legal drama pilot, Prism. Written by Daniel Barnz, who also directs, Prism is inspired by Rashomon, the 1950 Japanese period psychological thriller directed by Akira Kurosawa, and is described as “a provocative exploration of a murder trial in which every episode is told through the perspective of a different key person involved.”
The Office alum Rainn Wilson is set to co-star opposite Sasha Lane in Utopia, Amazon’s adaptation of the British series written by Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn. Utopia follows a group of young adults who meet online and are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come into possession of a cult underground graphic novel.
Kodi Smit-McPhee (X-Men: Apocalypse) is set as a lead opposite Kyle Gallner in CBS All Access’s straight-to-series true-crime drama, Interrogation. The project is an original concept based on a true story that spanned more than 30 years, in which a young man (Gallner) was charged and convicted of brutally murdering his mother. Since the episodes are made to be watched in any order, the audience will jump back and forth in time, witnessing this man’s story unfold in multiple timelines. Smit-McPhee will play a troubled and homeless teen who meets Gallner’s character at a drug-rehabilitation center, where they became quick friends.
Gabriel Ebert and Rarmian Newton are set as series regulars and Glynn Turman (How To Get Away With Murder) will recur on the upcoming third season of AT&T Audience Network’s critically praised drama series, Mr. Mercedes, based on the Stephen King novels. Ebert will play Morris Bellamy, a failed writer and volatile and charismatic wolf in sheep’s clothing. Newton plays Peter Saubers, whose picturesque Midwestern life was derailed when his father was disabled during the Mr. Mercedes massacre. Turman recurs as Bernard Raines, the no-nonsense judge presiding over Lou Linklatter’s murder trial.
Alicia Witt has landed a recurring role on the upcoming seventh and final season of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, playing Zelda, a professional fundraiser for various high-end non-profit organizations. The series follows the inmates of Litchfield Minimum Security Prison, with Season 6 seeing many of the main cast move to the Maximum Security Prison mentioned frequently in the series.
PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO
There is a new podcast by the Granite Noir Literature Festival that will include interviews with previous guests as well as information about forthcoming events. In the first episode, festival ambassador Stuart MacBride chats to Granite Noir’s Lesley Anne Rose about his motivations and books, and what we can look forward to at Granite Noir this year.
Michael Connelly's latest Murder Book podcast focused on Detective Rick Jackson, the “king of cold cases.”
Kings River Life magazine's Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast featured the first chapter of the mystery novel, Murder Gone Missing, by Lida Sideris, read by actor Casey Ballard.
On the latest CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: The Art & Science of Crime Fiction, host DP Lyle took a look at “Alice in Wonderland” syndrome.
On Writer’s Detective Bureau, Det. Adam Richardson answered questions about virtual private networks (VPNs), his personal story, and how police academies have changed.
20th Century Geek podcast host, Scott Weatherly, chatted with Caroline Crampton of Shedunnit podcast fame about the period between 1920 and 1940, regarded as the golden age of detective fiction.
Suspense Radio's Beyond the Cover featured Steve Barry, discussing his latest international Cotton Malone thriller that follows a deadly race for the Vatican’s oldest secret.
On this episode of the Spybrary Spy Podcast, John Koenig sent in a brush pass review of two spy novels written in the early 80s, Chess Player and Button Zone. (A brush pass is a first impression review sent in by Spybrary listeners with their first impressions of a spy book, spy movie or spy tv show soon after finishing it.)
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